M1 - 1 - Eyal Wiezman's "Lethal Theory"

This space that you look at, this room that you look at, is nothingbut your interpretation of it. Now, you can stretch the boundaries of your interpretation, but not in an unlimited fashion, after all, it must be bound by physics, as it contains buildings and alleys. The question is, how do you interpret the alley? Do you interpret the alley as a place, like every architect and every town planner does, to walk through, or do you interpret the alley as a place forbiddento walk through? This depends only on interpretation. We interpreted the alley as a place forbidden to walk through, and the door as a place forbidden to pass through, and the window as a place forbidden to look through, because a weapon awaits us in the alley, and a booby trap awaits us behind the doors. This is because the enemy interprets space in a traditional, classical manner, and I do not want to obey this interpretation and fall into his traps. Not only do I not want to fall into his traps, I want to surprise him! This is the essence of war. I need to win. I need to emerge from an unexpected place. And this is what we trited to do.This is why we opted for the methodology of moving through walls. . . . Like a worm that eats its way forward, emerging at points and then disappearing. We were thus moving from the interior of homes to their exterior in a surprising manner and in places we were not expected, arriving from behind and hitting the enemy that awaited us behind a corner. . . . Because it was the first time that this methodology was tested [at such a scale], during the operation itself we were learning how to adjust ourselves to the relevant urban space, and similarly, how to adjust the relevant urban space to our needs. . . . We took this microtactical practice[of moving through walls] and turned it into a method, and thanks to this method, we were able to interpret the whole space differently! . . . I said to my troops, “Friends! This is not a matterof your choice! There is no other way of moving! If until now you were used to moving along roads and sidewalks, forget it! From now on we all walk through walls!

-Brigadier General Aviv Kokhavi, 2006
Commander of the Paratrooper Brigade of the Israeli Defense Force

*Eyal Wiezman's fascinating full article (http://www.skor.nl/_files/Files/OPEN18_P80-99(1).pdf)

Route of IDF on their Assault of Nablus (Wiezman).

Carving Urban Enviroments (Weizman). 

Is the space of the city always this equal-in-all-directions for us to move in?  Can we move through space always blasting away walls and floors? 

For the most part doors and walls and roofs and floors are respected.  Exceptions might be Armies or Bank Robbers.  (Albert Spaggieri, the great Mid-20th Century French Bank Robber-Gentleman, who picniced with wine and pate in a large bank vault once full of millions and painted on the wall:  sans armes, ni haine, ni violence "without weapons, nor hatred, nor violence")

For the rest of us: it takes too much energy to constantly blast holes in things or cut doors in 2 ft thick metal walls... makes more sense to walk on paths, and use common roads and arteries.  There were only 3,508 property crimes per 100,000 people in Canada in 2006 (via StatsCan) which shows the high degree to which property is respected (i.e., we do not, as a large majority, move through space like the IDF or Spaggieri).

-g